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Saturday, March 29, 2014

A few weeks ago, I had a wonderful opportunity to create a really meaningful scrapbook album for Glenn Beck. Over 50 friends, colleagues, and family members sent letters and photos wishing Glenn the best on his 50th birthday, and I compiled these wonderful memories into a scrapbook for him.

I love the mini albums and kits that I create, but it's albums like this that remind me why I scrapbook and why I started a business to do it -- the pictures and the stories. I believe that scrapbooking is part of God's plan for my life, but sometimes I question why. Last night, a friend reminded me that the word "remember" is used over 150 times in the Bible. God wants us to remember Him and His Word, but I also believe He wants us to remember the people and experiences that make our lives meaningful. Scrapbooks are a wonderful way to remember what truly matters.I am so thankful that Liz found me, and gave me the opportunity to create such a wonderful album for Glenn. I hope he loved it...and I hope that each time he sees it, he remembers....

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Hi everyone. I love using photos in my Silhouette software so I thought I would share a few tips on this fun technique with you today. For this layout, I cut a title out of a photo that I dropped into the software.

First, create a shape in your software that you want to drop your photo into. Any shape will work, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I just created a 4 x 6 box so that it would be the same size as the photo on my layout.

Find a photo that you want to use and drop it into the Silhouette Designer Edition software.

Next, use the text tool to type your title over the photo. I used a font called ‘Impact’ because I wanted the letters to be chunky.

Now, with both the shape (my 4 x 6), and the letters (SUNSET) highlighted, click on ‘modify’ (little icon with an M on it) and then hit ‘Crop’.

Now you will have your letters to do a print and cut. Before printing, remember to resize your mat to 8.5 x 11 and hit ‘show registration marks’. I used Silhouette’s white adhesive-backed card stock for my print & cut — I love the texture!

Since I wanted the texture to be the same on my photo, I printed my photo out using the same paper. Then, using small pop dots, I layered my title over my photo to give the title a 3d effect.

Here is another example of a layout I did using this technique. For this one, I cut out the banners from a fall leaves photo, and a tag out of a picture of my son.

You can have a lot of fun cutting shapes out of your photos! Have fun with this technique! Thanks for letting me share with you today!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Hi everyone! I have a fun tutorial to share with you. A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to make some name tags and a guest book for a baby shower she is having for a friend. The colors for the shower are grey and yellow, and they are using daisies and the chevron pattern for decorations. Today I'd like to show you how I made her name tags so that next time you are having a party, you can 'wow' the guests with your creativity! The Silhouette cutting files are all by Lori Whitlock and are linked at the bottom of this post.

I apologize for the photo -- it started raining before I could get any decent shots. I used Silhouette's white, printable sticker paper for these so that the guests can write their name on the tag and then peel them right off the sheet.

To start, open your Silhouette software, set your mat to 8 1/2 x 11, and click on 'show registration marks'. You want to do this because your name tags will be a print and cut, and your paper will probably need to be 8 1/2 x 11 to go through your printer. Next, find the label shape you want to use and size it appropriately. Mine are approximately 2x3".

Since I'm using Lori's cute bracket labels that have a shadow behind them, I was able to color fill the back shape with grey, and the inside shape with white. To do this, highlight the individual shape and click on the fill color bucket (1st icon on the top right toolbar). Do the same to color fill each shape.

Now the fun part. Add some cute details to your name tag that go with the theme of the party or meeting. Since the baby shower theme was daisies, I chose Lori's adorable daisy file.

I resized and ungrouped the daisy so that I could change the color. I wanted the daisy to be white, but show up well on the white background so I changed the 'Line Color' (6th icon on the top right toolbar) to grey.

Now here's a tip -- if I changed the line color and then printed it, the line would not show up well. Before printing, I had to change the thickness of the line (7th icon on the top right toolbar). I changed my grey line around the petals to .75.

I then color filled the center of my flower with yellow, grouped the whole flower (by right-clicking and choosing 'group') and moved it into position on my name tag.

The other theme of the baby shower is the popular chevron pattern. I found one of Lori's zig zag borders, resized it, and duplicated it a few times to create an extra little accent.

Once my name tag looked the way I wanted, I highlighted the inside shapes and went to the "cut window" and clicked 'no cut'. I only wanted to see the red cut line around the outside of the grey label.

I then went to the duplicate icon (the one that looks like a little flower) and duplicated right and below until I had a whole page of cute tags. Another tip -- after printing your name tags, be sure to set the cut settings on your machine appropriately. Since I was using printable sticker paper, and wanted the page to peel off the mat without leaving the tags behind so I set my blade to a 2. The tags were cut, but the backing of the sticker paper wasn't.

I also created a cute guest "Little Nuggets of Wisdom" for the guest to leave notes at the shower. Here are a couple pictures -- loving the themes the hostess chose :)

Monday, March 10, 2014

Welcome to Artsy Albums and your next stop on Lori Whitlock's March Blog Hop! If you're starting here, be sure to head over to Lori's site to start from the beginning! You won't want to miss the creative ideas at each stop!

For my project, I created a few of Lori's adorable

cards for some upcoming baby gifts.

Lori's new pop-up box cards are all so cute, and fit perfectly into an A2 envelope when they fold down. The baby bottle card is also super cute and can be combined with any sentiment on the front. I found a cute label with the word 'congrats' to add to mine, and I've included all of the links

for these here on my blog today.

In addition to all of the fun creative projects on today's hop, Lori is also giving away a great freebie at each stop. The freebie here on my site is a wonderful "My Blessings" graphic that can be layered over any photo before printing.

As you can see from my photo, I easily added the graphic to my photo in photoshop, changed the color to white, and then adjusted the opacity a bit.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

The designs and pictures listed on this blog are provided here for personal use only and may not be sold, reproduced or used for commercial or submission purposes in any form without my written permission.
Copyright 2014. All rights reserved: www.ArtsyAlbums.com.

Welcome to Artsy Albums - a place for memories. The mission of my company is to create scrapbooks and mini album kits, that encourage people to share their stories, preserve their photos, and document their everyday lives. My personal philosophy is to work to create a life I love everyday, thanking and giving God the glory in the process, and putting others before self. My joy comes from my family and friends, my passion for scrap booking, the sense of accomplishment I get from my work, and above all, my faith. Thank you for visiting Artsy Albums!

Happily Designing for:

Doodlebug

Simple Stories

Scrapbook & Cards Today

Previous Design Teams

We R Memory Keepers

“Received my wedding albums today and they're absolutely incredible! I have to agree with a previous post that Traci does AMAZING custom work! All I did was send a CD of my pictures, describe the style I like (vintage/aged/inked), and pick out my album. Even though Traci emailed images of the papers she planned to use, I did not see the album until it came to my house. I was a bit anxious, but I shouldn't have been. I've purchased albums from Traci before, but this was my first custom order. I'm absolutely sold on the wonderful work she does and her remarkable talent!!” - E. Petersen

“A wonderful seller who puts so much hard work and passion into her kits. I am most impressed!” - Ng Jin Miin

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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: The designs and pictures listed on this blog are provided here for personal use only and may not be sold, reproduced or used for commercial or submission purposes in any form without my written permission.